Larry Braile,
Professor

PurdueUniversity

Objectives:To view the breakup of the
super-continent Pangea over the past 190 million years and chart the subsequent
movement of landmasses, and to better understand plate tectonics.(This lesson plan was adapted from a similar
activity by Ford, 1994.A similar
flipbook is presented in Tremor Troop (2000).Additional information on plate tectonics and
continental drift can be found in Bolt, 1993; Ernst, 1990; and the USGS publication
"This Dynamic Earth: The Story of Plate Tectonics" [also available on
the Internet at: http://pubs.usgs.gov/publications/text/dynamic.html].)

-access to a world map showing terrain, such as
mountains and seafloor (an excellent map for this purpose is This Dynamic Planet, Simkin et al.,
1994, 1:30,000,000 scale.To order, call
the U.S. Geological Survey Map Distribution at 1-888-ASK-USGS; http://pubs.usgs.gov/pdf/planet.html.)

Procedure:

1.Provide
students with copies of map sheets (Figure 1) photocopied on heavy paper (card
stock), each with a number of frames (F1 to F20).These frames are reconstructed maps of the
landmasses that existed on Earth at a specific time.The interval between successive frames is 10
million years (mya = millions of years ago).Frame 20 depicts landmasses as they are today.The maps are a view (projection) of the
entire Earth, showing the outline of the continents, onto a flat surface.The orientation and representation of the
Earth’s continental regions can be most easily visualized by looking at map F20
(present day view) in Figure 1E.On this
and the other maps, the equator (zero degrees latitude) would be a horizontal
line through the middle of the map area (through northern South America,
central Africa and Indonesia).Similarly, the Prime Meridian (zero degrees
longitude) would be a vertical line through the middle of the map area (through
England, Spain and western Africa).

2.Beginning
with frame 20 and working back-wards, have students identify the landmasses
listed in the table below.Have student
groups color these landmasses as indicated in the table, assigning a different
land mass to each student group.Have
students continue working backwards through the frames until they can no longer
identify the individual landmasses.By
assigning different land masses to different groups, the students will be able
to share their results when the flip books are completed and several different
continental movements and plate tectonic interactions will be illustrated on
the different flip books.

Land
MassesColor

North and South AmericaYellow

AustraliaTan

IndiaOrange

AfricaGreen

Europe and AsiaRed

AntarcticaBlue

GreenlandPurple

3.An option for
coloring the landmasses is to select more than one continent that will display
a particular movement and interaction through time.For example:

a.Begin with F1
(190 mya) and color the super-continent Pangea green.Continue to identify and color Pangea on subsequent
frames until the continents are completely separated (F15)

b.Working
backwards through time (begin with F20), select two continents that display a
particular plate tectonics interaction and color the continents on the frames
back through time until the continents are together.Good examples are Africa and South America or
Europe and North America that illustrate continental separation (divergent
plate boundaries) and opening of the Atlantic Ocean basin through time, or India and Asia
that shows a continental collision (convergent plate boundary).

4.Have students
cut out each frame carefully along the outside frame lines.When all rectangles are cut out, stack them
in order 1-20.Frame 1 should be on top
(although the frames could also be ordered so that F20 is on the top, but it is
useful to have all the flip books have the same order to minimize confusion as
students share their individual flip books).Booklets should then be carefully aligned and stapled securely along the
left side.A heavy-duty stapler will
work best with the card stock.Alternatively, small binder clips can be used.

5.Holding the
rectangles along their left side, have students flip through the frames,
observing changing position of the landmasses (plate movement and continental
drift).They are modeling the breakup of
Pangea and the movement of landmasses over 190 million years, arriving at the
configuration of our present-day continents.

6.Encourage
student groups to exchange and view various flipbooks in order to make
observations and inferences from the movements of the different continents.

Have students consider the following questions:

1.What event
began to occur about 190 million years ago?

2.During your
coloring of the frames, in which frame did you locate the first appearance of
the following landmasses:

North America?

Australia?

India?

Europe?

Antarctica?

3.In which
frame did you locate the final breakup of Pangea?Why did you choose that frame and not
another?

4.Sometimes
when two plates collide, the landmasses (continents) within the plates are
pushed together and a mountain range can form.Using a world map, identify two locations where mountain ranges exist
and where you hypothesize plate collisions between continents or parts of
continents have occurred.Use your
flipbooks to confirm your hypothesis.(Note that not all present-day mountain ranges were formed by
continental collision events or by plate convergence that occurred during the
last 190 million years.)

5.If mountain
ranges can form where plates are colliding, what would you hypothesize might
occur where plates are separating?Apply
your hypothesis to identify locations on a world map where plates might be
separating (both oceanic and continental lithospheric plate divergence zones
can be identified on the map and in the flip books).The flipbooks will help you identify previous
plate separations.

Extension Activities:

1.Using
selected frame sheets (Figure 2), have students color the land mass identified
as India
today on each of the frames.Have
students graph the changing position of India’s
landmass (distance from the equator by identifying the latitude of the
approximate center of India
through time; the latitude scale on Figure 2A should be used to estimate the
latitude of India
on each frame) over time, using the provided graph paper (Figure 3).The equator is the horizontal line on the
maps in Figure 2.Note the probable
effects on climate of India
through the past about 100 million years (paleoclimate) as India’s
position has changed.How would this
climate be different then the climate in India today?Can you find any evidence (in available books
or reference materials or in an Internet search) that supports the concept of a
different climate for India
100 or more million years ago?Students
could choose a different land mass and repeat this graphing activity to compare
movement over time.

2.Repeat the
previous activity having students measure and plot the opening of the Atlantic ocean through time.Select two locations on opposite sides of the
Atlantic on Frame 20 on Figure 2B (present or
0 mya map).Suggested points in the
north Atlantic are:the northeastern US
on the east coast of North America and the Iberian peninsula (Spain) on the west coast of Europe.Suggested points for the south Atlantic are
the easternmost point along the east coast of South America (eastern Brazil) and the prominent indentation along the
west coast of Africa near Nigeria.Referring to these points on a world map or
on a transparency of Figure 2B on an overhead projector may be useful.

Measure the
distance between these points using the kilometer scale provided on Figure
2A.Plot the distance between the two
points, showing the opening of the Atlantic
through time, on the graph provided in Figure 4.It will be easiest to work backwards
(beginning with Frame 20) through time.You should be able to recognize a separation between your two points
back to about 80 to 120 million years ago.As a challenge, calculate the approximate average speed (say in
km/million years) for the opening of the Atlantic
inferred from your graph.How does this
speed compare with typical plate velocities (1-15 cm/yr) that are inferred for
contemporary plate tectonic motions (you will need to make a conversion between
km/million years and cm/yr in order to make the comparison)?

Figure 1.Frames F1 through F20 showing the
configuration of the continents on a projection of the Earth (the equator
would be a horizontal line through the middle of the map; the prime meridian
would be a vertical line through the center of the map) from 190 million
years ago (mya) through the present.A. Frames F1 to F4.B. Frames
F5 to F8.C. Frames F9 to F12.D. Frames F13 to F16.E. Frames F17 to F20.

Figure 1A.

Figure 1.Frames F1 through F20 showing the configuration
of the continents on a projection of the Earth (the equator would be a
horizontal line through the middle of the map; the prime meridian would be a
vertical line through the center of the map) from 190 million years ago (mya)
through the present. A. Frames F1 to
F4.B. Frames F5 to F8.C. Frames F9 to F12.D. Frames F13 to F16.E. Frames F17 to F20.

Figure 1A.

Figure 1.Frames F1 through F20 showing the
configuration of the continents on a projection of the Earth (the equator
would be a horizontal line through the middle of the map; the prime meridian
would be a vertical line through the center of the map) from 190 million
years ago (mya) through the present.A. Frames F1 to F4.B. Frames
F5 to F8.C. Frames F9 to F12.D. Frames F13 to F16.E. Frames F17 to F20.

Figure 1B.

Figure 1.Frames F1 through F20 showing the
configuration of the continents on a projection of the Earth (the equator
would be a horizontal line through the middle of the map; the prime meridian
would be a vertical line through the center of the map) from 190 million
years ago (mya) through the present.A. Frames F1 to F4.B. Frames
F5 to F8.C. Frames F9 to F12.D. Frames F13 to F16.E. Frames F17 to F20.

Figure 1C.

Figure 1.Frames F1 through F20 showing the
configuration of the continents on a projection of the Earth (the equator
would be a horizontal line through the middle of the map; the prime meridian
would be a vertical line through the center of the map) from 190 million
years ago (mya) through the present.A. Frames F1 to F4.B. Frames
F5 to F8.C. Frames F9 to F12.D. Frames F13 to F16.E. Frames F17 to F20.

Figure 1D.

Figure 1.Frames F1 through F20 showing the
configuration of the continents on a projection of the Earth (the equator
would be a horizontal line through the middle of the map; the prime meridian
would be a vertical line through the center of the map) from 190 million
years ago (mya) through the present.A. Frames F1 to F4.B. Frames
F5 to F8.C. Frames F9 to F12.D. Frames F13 to F16.E. Frames F17 to F20.

Figure 1E.

Figure 2.Selected maps for
measuring the positions of continental regions through time.The horizontal line through the center of
the map is the equator.A. Frames F8,
F10 and F12.Scales at the bottom of
the figure are for determining latitude and measuring distances between two
landmasses.B. Frames F14, F16, F18
and F20.

Figure 2A.

Figure 2.Selected maps for
measuring the positions of continental regions through time.The horizontal line through the center of
the map is the equator.A. Frames F8,
F10 and F12.Scales at the bottom of
the figure are for determining latitude and measuring distances between two
landmasses.B. Frames F14, F16, F18
and F20.

Figure 2B.

Figure 3.Graph for plotting position (latitude) of a continent (India, for
example) through time.

Figure 4.The movement of the Indian subcontinent through time by plate tectonics
motions (from USGS, "This Dynamic Earth – The Story of Plate
Tectonics").

Figure 5.Graph for plotting distance between two continents through time as the Atlantic Ocean basin opened.